It is well established that certain forms of hydrocarbons require upgrading in order to either transport them or enhance value for sale. Further, refineries are not suited to processing heavy oil, bitumen etc. and thus the viscosity, density and impurity content, such as heavy metals, sulfur and nitrogen, present in such heavy materials must be altered to permit refining. Upgrading is primarily focussed upon reducing viscosity, sulfur, metals, and asphaltene content in the bitumen.
One of the problems with heavy oil and bitumen upgrading is that the asphaltenes and the heavy fraction must be removed or modified to create value and product yield. Typical upgraders exacerbate the problem by the formation of petcoke or residuum which results in undesirable waste material. This material, since it cannot be easily converted by conventional methods, is commonly removed from the process, reducing the overall yield of valuable hydrocarbon material from the upgrading process.
The Fischer-Tropsch process has found significant utility in hydrocarbon synthesis procedures and fuel synthesis. The process has been used for decades to assist in the formulation of hydrocarbons from several materials such as coal, residuum, petcoke, and biomass. In the last several years, the conversion of alternate energy resources has become of great interest, given the escalating environmental concerns regarding pollution, the decline of world conventional hydrocarbon resources, and the increasing concern over tailings pond management, together with the increasing costs to extract, upgrade and refine the heavy hydrocarbon resources. The major producers in the area of synthetic fuels have expanded the art significantly in this technological area with a number of patented advances and pending applications in the form of publications. Applicant's co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 13/024,925, teaches a fuel synthesis protocol.
Examples of recent advances that have been made in this area of technology includes the features taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,958,363, issued to Espinoza, et al., Oct. 25, 2005, Bayle et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 7,214,720, issued May 8, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 6,696,501, issued Feb. 24, 2004, to Schanke et al.
In respect of other progress that has been made in this field of technology, the art is replete with significant advances in, not only gasification of solid carbon feeds, but also methodology for the preparation of syngas, management of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in a XTL plant, the Fischer-Tropsch reactors management of hydrogen, and the conversion of carbon based feedstock into hydrocarbon liquid transportation fuels, inter alia. The following is a representative list of other such references. This includes: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,776,114; 6,765,025; 6,512,018; 6,147,126; 6,133,328; 7,855,235; 7,846,979; 6,147,126; 7,004,985; 6,048,449; 7,208,530; 6,730,285; 6,872,753, as well as United States Patent Application Publication Nos. US2010/0113624; US2004/0181313; US2010/0036181; US2010/0216898; US2008/0021122; US 2008/0115415; and US 2010/0000153.
The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process has several significant benefits when applied to a bitumen upgrader process, one benefit being that it is able to convert previously generated petcoke and residuum to valuable, high quality synthetic crude oil (SCO) with notably increased paraffinic content. A further significant benefit is that the raw bitumen yield to SCO is near or greater than 100%, a 20% yield increase relative to certain current upgrader processes. Another benefit is that there is no petcoke and residuum waste product to impact the environment thus improving overall bitumen resource utilization.
A further benefit of the application of the FT process to a bitumen upgrader is that the FT byproducts can be partially and fully blended with the distilled or separated fractions of the bitumen or heavy oil feed stream to formulate a unique bottomless partially upgraded synthetic crude oil (SCO) strategically blended for efficient transport and further processing in downstream refineries. The overall benefit is significant reduction in facility GHG emissions and 100% conversion of the bitumen or heavy oil resource without the formation of wasteful byproducts.
A further benefit of the application of the FT process to a bitumen upgrader is that a sweet, highly paraffinic and high cetane content synthetic crude oil (SCO) is produced. More specifically, beneficial byproducts of the FT process such as paraffinic naphtha and FT vapours (such as methane and liquid petroleum gases (LPG)), have particular value within the bitumen upgrader process and upstream unit operations. FT vapours, virtually free from sulfur compounds can be used as upgrader fuel or as feedstock for hydrogen generation to offset the requirement for natural gas. FT naphtha, primarily paraffinic in nature, can also be used in the generation of hydrogen, but further, due to its unique paraffinic nature, it can also be used as an efficient deasphalting solvent not readily available from current upgrader operations.
It has also been well documented that the use of FT paraffinic naphtha as a solvent for an oil sands froth unit improves the operation and efficacy of fine tailings and water removal at a reduced diluent to bitumen (D/B) ratio and relatively low vapour pressure. This has significant advantages in terms of lowering the size and cost of expensive separators and settlers and increasing their separation performance and capacity rating. This results in virtually dry bitumen froth feed (<0.5 basic sediment and water) to the upgrader, while improving impact on the tailings pond.
Having thus generally discussed the appropriateness of the Fischer-Tropsch technique in synthesizing syngas to FT liquids, a discussion of the prior art and particularly the art related to the upgrading and gasifying of heavy hydrocarbon feeds would be useful.
One of the examples in this area of the prior art is the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 7,407,571 issued Aug. 5, 2008, to Rettger et al. This reference names Ormat Industries Ltd. as the Assignee and teaches a process for producing sweet synthetic crude oil from a heavy hydrocarbon feed. In the method, the patentees indicate that heavy hydrocarbon is upgraded to produce a distillate feed which includes sour products and high carbon byproducts. The high carbon content byproducts are gasified in a gasifier to produce a syngas and sour byproducts. The process further hydroprocesses the sour products along with hydrogen gas to produce gas and a sweet crude. Hydrogen is recovered in a recovery unit from the synthetic fuel gas. The process also indicates that further hydrogen gas is processed and hydrogen depleted synthetic fuel gas is also produced. Further hydrogen gas is supplied to the hydroprocessing unit and a gasifying step is conducted in the presence of air or oxygen. The gas mixture is scrubbed to produce a sour water and a clean sour gas mixture. The sour gas mixture is subsequently processed to produce a sweet synthetic fuel gas and a hydrogen enriched gas mixture from the synthetic fuel gas using a membrane. The overall process is quite effective, however, it does not take advantage of the conversion of synthesized streams which are useful for introduction into the hydroprocessing unit for production of synthetic crude, the recycling of unique streams for use in the upgrader, nor is there any teaching specifically of the integration of the Fischer-Tropsch process or the recognition of the benefit to the process of using a SMR and/or ATR in the process circuit to maximize SCO yields and reducing dependence on natural gas.
Iqbal et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 7,381,320 issued Jun. 3, 2008, teaches a process for heavy oil and bitumen upgrading. In overview, the process is capable of upgrading crude oil from a subterranean reservoir. The process involves converting asphaltenes to steam power, fuel gas, or a combination of these for use in producing heavy oil or bitumen from a reservoir. A portion of the heavy oil or bitumen are solvent deasphalted to form an asphaltene fraction and a deasphalted oil, referred to in the art as DAD as a fraction free of asphaltenes and with reduced metals content. The asphaltene fraction from the solvent deasphalting is supplied to the asphaltenes conversion unit and a feed comprising the DAO fraction supplied to a reaction zone of a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit with an FCC catalyst to capture a portion of the metals from the DAO fraction. A hydrocarbon effluent is recovered from this having a reduced metal content. Similar to the process taught in U.S. Pat. No. 7,407,571, this process has utility, however, it limits the conversion of the otherwise wasteful asphaltene to production of solid fuel or pellets or conversion to syngas for fuel, hydrogen or electric power production. There is no teaching specifically integrating the Fischer-Tropsch process.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,708,877 issued May 4, 2010 to Farshid et. al. there is taught an integrated heavy oil upgrader process and in line hydro finishing process. In the process, a hydroconversion slurry reactor system is taught that permits a catalyst, unconverted oil and converted oil to circulate in a continuous mixture throughout a reactor with no confinement of the mixture. The mixture is partially separated between the reactors to remove only the converted oil while allowing unconverted oil in the slurry catalyst to continue on to the next sequential reactor where a portion of the unconverted oil is converted to a lower boiling point. Additional hydro processing occurs in additional reactors for full conversion of the oil. The so called fully converted oil is subsequently hydrofinished for nearly complete removal of heteroatoms such as sulfur and nitrogen.
This document is primarily concerned with hydroconversion of heavy hydrocarbon, while not being suitable for bitumen upgrading. It also fails to provide any teaching regarding the use of Fischer-Tropsch process, usefulness of recycle streams, hydrogen generation or other valuable and efficient unit operations critical to successful upgrading of raw bitumen.
Calderon et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,647 issued Aug. 19, 2008, teach a method and apparatus for upgrading bituminous material. The method involves a series of four distinct components, namely a fractionator, a heavy gas oil catalytic treater, a catalyst regenerator/gasifier and a gas clean up assembly. The patent indicates that in practicing the method, the bitumen in liquid form is fed to the fractionator for primary separation of fractions with the bulk of the bitumen leaving the bottom of the fractionator in the form of a heavy gas oil which is subsequently pumped to the catalytic treater and sprayed on a hot catalyst to crack the heavy gas oil, thus releasing hydrocarbons in the form of hydrogen rich volatile matter while depositing carbon on the catalyst. The volatile matter from the treater is passed to the fractionator where condensable fractions are separated from noncondensable hydrogen rich gas. The carbon containing catalyst from the treater is recycled to the regenerator/gasifier and the catalyst, after being regenerated is fed hot to the treater.
The method does not incorporate the particularly valuable Fischer-Tropsch process or provide a unit for effecting the Fischer-Tropsch reaction and further, the method is limited by the use of the catalyst which would appear to be quite susceptible to sulfur damage and from this sense there is no real provision for handling the sulfur in the bitumen.
In United States Patent Application, Publication No. US 2009/0200209, published Aug. 13, 2009, Sury et. al. teach upgrading bitumen in a paraffinic froth treatment process. The method involves adding a solvent to a bitumen froth emulsion to induce a settling rate of at least a portion of the asphaltenes and mineral solids present in the emulsion and results in the generation of the solvent bitumen-froth mixture. Water droplets are added to the solvent bitumen-froth mixture to increase the rate of settling of the asphaltenes and mineral solids. The focus of the publication is primarily to deal with the froth. There is no significant advance in the upgrading of the bitumen.
A wealth of advantages are derivable from the technology that has been developed and which is described herein. These are realized in a number of ways including:                a) near 100% or greater synthetic crude oil yield from heavy oil or bitumen without the wasteful production of petcoke or residuum;        b) bottomless partially upgraded synthetic crude oil (SCO) is strategically formulated for high efficiency transport, including pipelining, eliminates crude properties that restrict the amount of heavy oil and bitumen that can be processed in conventional refineries;        c) Maximum utilization of carbon in heavy oil and bitumen to form high quality synthetic fuels and crude oil, with the significant reduction (greater than 50%) in GHG from the facility;        d) the synthetic crude oil (SCO) slate from partial upgrading is higher quality, bottomless crude with more paraffinic and less aromatic and heavy gas oil components, low metals, lower sulfur, lower TAN number and significantly lower Conrad Carbon (CCR) in the product slate;        e) less natural gas is required to generate hydrogen for upgrading as the FT naphtha, FT vapours and hydroprocessing vapours can be recycled to generate a hydrogen rich syngas;        f) pure hydrogen can be generated from the hydrogen rich syngas using membranes, absorption or pressure swing adsorption units, for use in the hydroprocessing (hydrocracking, isomerisation, hydrotreating) units;        g) Fischer-Tropsch (FT) liquids are primarily paraffinic in nature improving the quality and value of SCO product slate;        h) FT naphtha is rarely available in any quantity in current upgraders and would be very preferentially used for deasphalting vacuum bottoms in a Solvent Deasphalting Unit (SDA) and in a oil sands Froth Treatment Unit; and        i) concentrated CO2 is available from the gasifier (XTL) syngas treatment unit, allowing the upgrader to be a low cost carbon capture ready CO2 source for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects.        
One object of the present invention is to provide an improved heavy oil and bitumen upgrading methodology for synthesizing hydrocarbons with a substantially increased yield without the production of waste byproducts such as petcoke or residuum.
A further object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a partial upgrading process for synthetic crude which obviates all of the encumbrances associated with diluent handling, transportation and other logistics typically commensurate with currently practiced partial upgrading techniques or dilbit products.
A further object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide for a process for upgrading heavy oil or bitumen to formulate hydrocarbon byproducts. The process comprises:                a) providing a source of heavy oil or bitumen feedstock;        b) treating said feedstock to form a non-distilled bottoms fraction;        c) feeding said bottoms fraction to a syngas generating circuit for formulating a hydrogen lean syngas stream via a partial oxidation reaction, and reacting said syngas in a Fischer-Tropsch reactor to synthesize hydrocarbon byproducts;        d) removing at least a portion of partially upgraded synthetic crude oil for transport as a synthesized hydrocarbon byproduct; and        e) adding an external source of hydrogen to said hydrogen lean syngas to optimize the synthesis of hydrocarbons at least one of which is synthetic crude oil.        
The partial upgrading protocol also has a number of benefits all of which have immediately monetizable and expediency attributes.
Generally speaking, the partial upgrading process is a process to upgrade heavy oil or bitumen with density of 15 to 24 API or more perferred 20 API. The process is specifically designed to produce synthetic crude oil for pipeline operations, specifically with viscosity less than 350 centistokes (0.00035 m2 s−1) at 15° C. and eliminate the need for supply of external diluent typically used to reduce viscosity for transportation.
Presently, there is insufficient petroleum diluent available to transport all the heavy crude oil from Alberta. The alternative is to recover and ship the diluent back to Alberta for blending at significant cost impact. The partially upgraded product is further specifically formulated to meet the highly preferred crude feedstock specifications required by conventional refineries allowing for a premium price for approaching West Texas Intermediate(WTI) and Brent value. In addition, the product has properties which resolve environmental impact related to pipeline leaks and oil spills during land and ocean transport. The unique properties include:                a) The product meets 20 API density specification and has a viscosity of less than 350 centistokes (0.00035 m2 s−1) at 15° C. without the addition of external (30 to 50 volume %) diluent and requirement for return shipment of diluent. The use of external diluent reduces the pipeline capacity and increases cost to operate (pumping energy) by more than 30%;        b) The process coverts 100 wt % of the bitumen or heavy oil feed with at least 50% reduction, more preferred 70 to 80% reduction in greenhouse gases (GHG) with no waste byproducts such as unconverted residuum or coke products;        c) The product yield is greater than 108 vol % yield, which is a 38% greater yield than conventional dilbit process and 26% greater than other conventional upgrading processes;        d) The product has 30% less sulfur and is the only bottomless product with greater than 80% of Conrad Carbon (CCR) removed and primarily all 950+F bottoms material removed. Advantageously, this reduces the residuum and coking load on conventional refineries, eliminates the undesirable fouling of conventional refineries, and removes greater than 90% of the heavy metals eliminating major cost impact to a refinery, such as catalyst replacement;        e) The product is compatible with other crude oils as the process does not involve cracking of the distilled and separated streams and eliminates the formation of olefin compounds. The product is stable as no asphaltene compounds can precipitate, as these compounds have substantially been removed. This eliminates the blending restriction typically reducing the mixing limits with other crude feedstocks (typically less than 10% heavy oil or bitumen is permitted in total crude feed);        f) The product has minimal light volatile compounds such as LPG, more paraffinic components versus aromatics and contains an increased distillate component, such as diesel and kerosene. Under spill conditions, the density of the product will remain below a specific gravity of 1.0, typically 0.90 to 0.93 and always be lighter than water;        g) The product contains increase of distillate diesel component and this distillate component is much improved to greater than 55 cetane, versus typical cetane levels less than 35 in conventional dilbit products; and        h) The product process significantly reduces Naphthenic Acid content or TAN number (typically much less than 3, perferrably less than 1) as the naphthenic acid is concentrated in the vacuum bottoms, which is destroyed by gasification process.        
The present technology mitigates the oversights exemplified in the prior art references. Despite the fact that the prior art, in the form of patent publications, issued patents, and other academic publications, all recognize the usefulness of a Fischer-Tropsch process, steam methane reforming, autothermal reforming, hydrocarbon upgrading, synthetic oil formulation, stream recycle, and other processes, the prior art when taken individually or when mosaiced is deficient a process that provides the efficient upgrading of bitumen and heavy oil in the absence of residuum and/or petcoke generation.
Synthetic crude oil (SCO) is the output from a bitumen/heavy oil upgrader facility used in connection with bitumen and heavy oil from mineable oil sands and in situ production. It may also refer to shale oil, an output from an oil shale pyrolysis. The properties of the synthetic crude depend on the processes used in the partial or full upgrading. Typical full upgraded SCO is devoid of sulfur and has an API gravity of around 30 to 40, suitable for conventional refinery feedstock. It is also known as “upgraded crude”. The processes delineated herein are particularly effective for partial upgrading, full upgrading or full refining to gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. Conveniently, the flexibility of the processes allows for fuel synthesis and synthetic crude oil partial upgrading within the same protocol or the partial upgrading as the entire process.
The present invention amalgamates, in a previously unrecognized combination, a series of known unit operations into a much improved synthesis route for a high yield, high quality production of synthetic hydrocarbons. Integration of a Fischer-Tropsch process, and more specifically the integration of a Fischer-Tropsch process with a hydrogen rich syngas generator which uses FT naphtha and/or FT upgrader vapours as primary fuel in combination with natural gas, in a steam methane reformer (SMR) and/or an autothermal reformer (ATR) results in a superior sweet synthetic crude oil which is synthesizable in the absence of petcoke and residuum.
It was discovered that, by employing a steam methane reformer (SMR) as a hydrogen rich syngas generator using Refinery Fuel, Refinery LPG, FT LPG, FT naphtha and FT/upgrader vapours, in combination with natural gas, significant results can be achieved when blended with the hydrogen lean syngas created by the gasification of non-distilled bitumen or heavy oil bottoms. A significant production increase in middle distillate synthetic hydrocarbons range is realized. The general reaction is as follows;Natural Gas+FT Naphtha(v)+FT Upgrader Vapours+Steam+Heat→CO+nH2+CO2.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, steam methane reforming may be operated at any suitable conditions to promote the conversion of the feedstreams, an example as shown in above equation, to hydrogen H2 and carbon monoxide CO, or what is referred to as syngas or specifically as hydrogen rich syngas. Significant benefits resulted in a great than 30% increase in middle distillate synthesized hydrocarbon. Steam and natural gas is added to optimize the desired ratio of hydrogen to carbon monoxide to approximate range of 3:1 to 6:1. A water gas shift reaction (WGS), pressure swing adsorption (PSA) or membrane unit can also be added to any portion of the SMR syngas circuit to further enrich the hydrogen rich stream and generate a near pure hydrogen stream for hydroprocessing use. Generally natural gas, FT Vapours, Refinery Gas or any other suitable fuel is used to provide the heat energy for the SMR furnace.
The steam reformer may contain any suitable catalyst, an example of one or more catalytically active components such as palladium, platinum, rhodium, iridium, osmium, ruthenium, nickel, chromium, cobalt, cerium, lanthanum, or mixtures thereof. The catalytically active component may be supported on a ceramic pellet or a refractory metal oxide. Other forms will be readily apparent to those skilled.
It was further discovered that employing an autothermal reformer (ATR) as a sole hydrogen rich syngas generator or in combination with the SMR or as a hybrid combination of an ATR/SMR referred to as a XTR, significant benefits resulted in a greater than 200% increase in the FT middle distillate synthetic hydrocarbons. Feedstreams for the ATR or XTR consist of FT naphtha, FT vapours, H2 rich upgrader vapours, CO2, O2 and natural gas.
Similarly, as is well known to those skilled in the art, autothermal reforming employs carbon dioxide and oxygen, or steam, in a reaction with light hydrocarbon gases like natural gas, FT vapours and upgrader vapours to form syngas. This is an exothermic reaction in view of the oxidation procedure. When the autothermal reformer employs carbon dioxide, the hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio produced is 1:1 and when the autothermal reformer uses steam, the ratio produced is approximately 2.5:1, or unusually as high as 3.5:1.
The reactions that are incorporated in the autothermal reformer are as follows:2CH4+O2+CO2→3H2+3CO+H2O+HEAT.When steam is employed, the reaction equation is as follows:4CH4+O2+2H2O+HEAT→10H2+4CO.
One of the more significant benefits of using the ATR is realized in the variability of the hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio. An additional benefit of using the ATR is that external CO2 can be added to reaction to effect a reverse shift reaction to create additional carbon monoxide for enhancement of the FT synthesis unit and reduction of overall facility GHG emissions. In the instant technology, an ATR may also be considered as a hydrogen rich syngas generator, as described previously. It has been found that the addition of the ATR operation to the circuit separately or in combination with the hydrogen rich syngas generation circuit, shown in the example above as a steam methane reformer (SMR), has a significant effect on the hydrocarbon productivity from the overall process. Similarly, a water gas shift reaction (WGS), pressure swing adsorption (PSA) or membrane unit can also be added to any portion of the ATR and combined ATR/SMR or XTR syngas circuit to further enrich the hydrogen rich stream and generate a near pure hydrogen stream for hydroprocessing use.
The present invention further amalgamates, in a previously unrecognized combination, a series of known unit operations to integrate the Fischer-Tropsch process, using a water gas shift reaction for syngas enrichment resulting in a valuable sweet synthetic crude oil which is synthesizable in the absence of petcoke and residuum.
Accordingly, a further object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a process for upgrading heavy oil or bitumen to formulate hydrocarbon byproducts, comprising:                a) providing a source of bitumen or heavy oil feedstock and distilling said feedstock to form a separated portion and a non-distilled bottoms fraction;        b) feeding said bottoms fraction to a syngas generating circuit for formulating a hydrogen lean syngas stream via a partial oxidation reaction;        c) treating at least a portion of the said hydrogen lean syngas stream to a water gas shift (WGS) reaction to generate an optimum Fischer-Tropsch syngas; and        d) treating said optimum Fischer-Tropsch syngas stream in a Fischer-Tropsch unit to synthesize hydrocarbon byproducts, at least one of which is blended with said non-distilled bottoms fraction or said separated portion to form a partially upgraded synthetic crude oil having an API gravity between 15 and 24        
In accordance with a further object of one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for synthesizing hydrocarbons, comprising:                a) formulating a hydrogen lean syngas stream in a partial oxidation reaction;        b) catalytically converting said syngas stream to produce hydrocarbon byproducts for formulating a partially upgraded synthetic crude oil;        c) maintaining said partially upgraded API range of between 15 and 24 absent the addition of external diluent; and        d) removing at least a portion of said partially upgraded synthetic crude oil for transportation.        
Accordingly, it is another object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide the process, wherein the water gas shift reactor (WGS) is replaced by a hydrogen rich syngas generator (XTR) selected from the group consisting of a steam methane reformer (SMR), autothermal reformer (ATR) or combination thereof.
A further object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a process for synthesizing hydrocarbons, comprising the steps of:                (a) formulating a hydrogen rich stream with a syngas generator;        (b) catalytically converting said stream to produce hydrocarbons, containing at least naphtha and partially upgraded synthetic crude oil having an API index between 15 and 24 suitable for transport;        (c) removing said partially upgraded synthetic crude oil;        (d) recycling at least a portion of said naphtha to said syngas generator to form an enhanced hydrogen rich stream; and        (e) re-circulating said enhanced hydrogen rich stream from step (d) for conversion in step (b) to enhance the synthesis of hydrocarbons.        
In accordance with a further aspect of one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for converting heavy oil or bitumen to transportable synthetic crude oil, comprising:                (a) treating said heavy oil or bitumen in an atmospheric distillation/diluent recovery unit to create a first stream containing at least straight run naphtha, light gas oil and liquid petroleum gas (LPG);        (b) passing a second atmospheric bottoms stream generated from step a) into a solvent deasphalting unit to formulate a deasphalted oil stream and a residuum asphaltene stream;        c) passing said residuum asphaltene stream of the deasphalting unit into a diesel producing circuit having a syngas generator and Fischer-Tropsch reactor to convert said portion to at least a synthetic diesel; and        d) blending said first stream, deasphalted oil stream and said synthetic diesel to form partially upgraded synthetic crude oil.        
In accordance with yet another object of one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for converting heavy oil or bitumen to a transportable partially upgraded synthetic crude oil, comprising:                a) processing said heavy oil or bitumen with unit operations to produce a treated stream and a non-distilled stream;        b) forming syngas from said non-distilled stream and reacting the syngas in a Fischer-Tropsch reactor to synthesize hydrocarbon byproducts; and        c) blending at least a portion of said byproducts with said treated stream to formulate a transportable synthetic crude oil with an API gravity of between 15 and 24 and a diesel fraction cetane number of not less than 40.        
Similar numerals employed in the figures denote similar elements.